ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the meaning of sustainability or meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, and argues that this is an unachievable myth as currently promoted. Despite many warnings, sustainability adherents have largely failed to acknowledge the root cause of the climate crisis. The goal of ever-increasing economic growth and accumulation drives production, consumption, and the associated harm to the environment. Sustainability is predicated on an array of green technologies and behaviours, all of which require burgeoning resource extraction and significant economic growth. We are already consuming the equivalent resources of 1.75 planets. To assume that we can continue to do so as the world’s population grows is delusional. As bleak as this assessment of sustainability is, there are alternatives for realistically addressing the limits to economic growth and accepting the true meaning of sustainability. Although these solutions and alternatives will not be easy or acceptable to many people and will be a poor consolation to others, living within our means is certainly possible and these possibilities are discussed.
